Mount St. Mary’s President Quits After Firings Seen as Retaliatory

Simon Newman, the former president of Mount St. Mary’s University.CreditMount St. Mary's University, via Associated Press

A Maryland university president resigned on Monday, weeks after a furor erupted on campus over faculty firings and a student newspaper article that quoted the president as comparing struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned or shot.

The board of the university, Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, about 60 miles northwest of Baltimore, announced that the dean of the business school would replace the departing university leader, Simon Newman, as acting president effective immediately.

Mr. Newman, a former financial industry executive who was born in the United Kingdom and was in his first year as president, said the controversy over his administration at the nation’s second-oldest Catholic university had become too great a distraction.

“I believe it is the right course of action for the Mount at this time,” he said in a statement.

The decision was an abrupt reversal for Mr. Newman, who had vowed not to step down even after faculty members called for his resignation and his actions were denounced by advocates of academic and journalistic freedom.

In January, the article by two student journalists, Rebecca Schisler and Ryan Golden, in The Mountain Echo reported two notable pieces of news. It said that the administration was planning to cull struggling freshmen as part of an effort to improve retention numbers — a major factor in rankings published in publications like U.S. News & World Report — and that Mr. Newman had used startling language to convince a skeptical professor last fall of the idea.

“This is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can’t,” Mr. Newman is quoted as saying. “You just have to drown the bunnies.”

He added, “Put a Glock to their heads.”

Mr. Newman later apologized and said his retention proposal had been meant to help students at risk of academic failure and burdensome debt.

Weeks later, however, the student paper’s faculty adviser, Ed Egan, was fired for what the university administration called disloyalty, a move seen by many as a retaliatory strike. Mr. Egan said in an interview that he had no doubt that the article was the cause of his termination: “There’s no other possible explanation.”

The firing, along with other punishments of faculty members — an associate professor of philosophy, Thane Naberhaus, a critic of Mr. Newman’s policies, was also dismissed; and David Rehm, a provost who had raised concerns about the retention proposal, was stripped of his role — drew condemnation from academics across the country.

Mr. Newman then reversed the firings of Mr. Egan and Dr. Naberhaus at a faculty meeting in February. But the damage had been done. Faculty members voted 87 to 3 to demand that Mr. Newman resign “for the good of our community.”

“It has become apparent that negative public attention has interfered with our ability to continue in our work and to bring new students and faculty to this campus,” the faculty said in a joint statement released by David McCarthy, the secretary to the faculty. “We have come to the sad conclusion that this state of affairs cannot be resolved while you continue in your current office.”

Mr. Newman appeared to have the backing of the university’s board, however. The Rev. Kevin Farmer, a board member, said the trustees had faith in Mr. Newman’s “vision for the future of the university” and his ability to lead. But the furor refused to die down, and a petition circulated among scholars protesting the firings drew thousands of signatures.

On Monday, the board of trustees named Karl Einolf, dean of the Richard J. Bolte Sr. School of Business, as acting president.

The board chairman, John E. Coyne, said in the statement, “The board is grateful to President Newman for his many accomplishments over the past year, including strengthening the university’s finances, developing a comprehensive strategic plan for our future and bringing many new ideas to campus that have benefited the entire Mount community.”

The university’s faculty leaders issued a brief statement late Monday. “We, the deans and department chairs of Mount St. Mary’s University, express our thanks to Simon Newman for his work on our behalf and wish him well in his future endeavors,” it read in part.

On Monday night, a video of Mr. Newman’s extolling the achievements at the university was still on its website. “We’ve also added newly renovated lounges, and welcomed Starbucks to campus,” he said. “Plus, we’ve taken action to show how deeply our community cares about the world around us.” He said he and the trustees were “planning for what we’re calling Mount 2.0.”